American City Life in the 19th Century

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Views of the outside world (foreign & domestic) and how they are determined
Urban problems and communication
Housing and food
Education
Medicare
Entertainment
Slavery
Thoughts on urban life in the South before the Civil War
Resources

Introduction

The history of the American people in the 19^th century is portrayed as life in any normal setting but the people who lived in this era led a rather different lifestyle from the present day or modern lifestyle. This is because the economic activities of the people of this era were mainly focused on agricultural and locomotive industries. Thus this paper seeks to show that life in that era was indeed different from the present life focusing on different aspects.

Views of the outside world (foreign & domestic) and how they are determined

In America, at that time domestic views were geographically and politically biased because for example the north Abolitionism is highly blamed by the south, and their views were seen as ‘unjust’ and ‘unmanly’¹. This shows that there existed rivalry between the north and the south that made these two sides keep on differing on their views for each other.

Also, external communities to the American society were highly observed and were treated unequally with indigenous Americans. This is supported by the report where major arrests² are made with the majority of those arrested being Negroes and slaves as blacks were referred to during that era. Therefore, it greatly counted to be an American to be served right or to get justice, and therefore this shows that justice could have been biased.

The outside world in America during this era was very less concentrated as more attention was directed on the local matters but some more hitting news like that of the French government that was about to get overthrown by the military of Napoleon is highlighted. This implies that the press of the moment concentrated on the news of the people around these people just like some of the current press companies.

Despite these different views, the American people worked in different fields whereby it is not clear whether it was specialization or just work as anyone could work. There was the organization of the white-collar job at that time such that those who took these positions became estimable members of the state for example a judge who had served as a magistrate was referred to as an estimable citizen at the time of his death.

But the majority of Americans worked in locomotive industries which were considered mechanical work. Other people worked as businessmen trading in jewelry as in the newspaper someone had advertised for the new arrivals of jewels that he promises are quite attractive and a bit expensive. Still, in the business sector, some more people sold greengrocer³ as seen in the advertisement columns of the newspaper, others dealt with coal that was fed to industries as a fuel resource.

There are even cases where the runaway Negroes, who ran away from the south to the north, engaged in plumbing business on their way to the north.

Urban problems and communication

During his era, many urban problems are encountered and some of these problems are the continuous cold weather of the season that even the writers of the articles refer to as so persistent that the sun will have a lot of hard work to do when the season is over. This implies that the cold weather becomes a big problem for the residents of the United States during this period. At one point in the entertainment section where a magician was to perform, the hall was to a greater extent empty as many people decided to remain indoors due to the bitingly chilly weather.

Another problem present during this time is the problems of social misconduct as for example the case where an eighteen-year-old young man called Richard Gentry breaks into a fight and disturbs the street. He then gets arrested for this and then he is arraigned before the mayor. The mayor at this juncture acts as the initial judge because in almost every aspect a case must be or had to be reported to him first before it is taken to the jury for another hearing. Unlike in the present world where the mayor is responsible for the developments matters of the city, in those days the mayor was to take responsibility for law and order.

Religiously there was a problem in the difference of the religions that people came from such that even at times there was the consideration of the religion of an individual before the assignment of office duty to that individual. This was rectified by the constitution that stated that an individual should not be considered on his ground of religion in duties of an office unless this individual

Another problem as presented in the paper is the problem concerning women. A young man by the name of Augustus had committed an offense that related to rape and was to be arraigned before a justice of the law.

Concerning communication during that era, people communicated through emails that were delivered from one place to another by the use of boats⁴. These were general postal mails that were very slow in delivery especially during the bad weather or the cold weather when iceberg growth in canals blocked the movement of the delivering boats.

Another form of communication was the use of the newspaper to address the crowd telling of the news that has happened and events that are coming to happen in the near future. For example, people are informed of the events happening distances far away and at specific places like for example the checking in at some hotels is listed. Also, arrivals at some ports, for example, the naval arrival at the port of Richmond are highlighted, that is the arrived and the sailed.

Again through the use of newspapers, there was some kind of communication whereby some notices were placed on the newspapers that carried messages of events that are going to occur in the near and distant future, where education institutes place their notices of intakes in the coming semesters.

In matters of industrial communication, there was an invaluable use of the James River in the transportation of the resources from the North and the south. Such kind of communication is very essential in terms of industrial development. Such that in order to continue keeping the industries of the north fed with the raw materials of the south, there has to be there some kind of link between the two sides. And this communication link between these two sides is initially the James River but when the railroad is completed later, there arise cases of calculation of how much the people of the south could save by not using the James River and instead use the railroad.

It was then proposed to the company not to allow the expenses of using the river as a means of transportation to exceed the expenses of using the railroad. The railroad was then seen as a takeover because it appeared to be cheaper in terms of time, cost and even to withstand bad weather such that instead of consuming too much time transporting raw materials from the south and finished products from the north in months and during the bad weather the river becoming impassable due to iceberg formation, the railroad reduces the transportation time between these two sides to a six-fold margin and does not seem to be threatened by any change of weather or climatical conditions be it in the summer or biting chilly winter.

Housing and food

The people of the south in the 19^th century seem to get some kind of personal and own mode of housing because the issue of housing is rarely touched. Food is the raw farm produces which include the livestock products like meat and milk as shown in the paper where a family gets poisoned by a servant and in this case the servant uses the tea that the family is used to taking every morning and puts poison in it⁵.

During the mid 19^th century the people of America were mainly farmers and as a result, they depended heavily on their own housing schemes because there was vast resource allocation for example land for these people for development. The government had encouraged people to apply for these land resources for development in the south by putting in place the lands Act in the year 1863. This fascinated majority of the people to move south with a view to developing themselves using the free resource that the government had decided to allocate to each willing individual. By doing this, the people who came to settle in the south had to build their own homes and start to develop the land that they had been allocated.

In the process, they required more labor and machinery to develop these kinds of land resources. This led to an increase in the demand of the slaves who were at that time on sale. These slaves were given housing by their masters and food as the only benefit they received.

The slaves, unlike their masters, had no say in anything but were rather used as objects by their masters. They worked very hard and eventually received housing and food as the only compensation from their masters.

In another type of housing scheme was the one offered by the United States government of the time to its workers. Americans who were considered as estimable citizens were offered accommodation by the United States government like for example the judges and magistrates. This kind of worker received housing schemes from the government that was defined and straightforward to them.

Also on the advertising columns, there are advertised houses that imply that the mode of housing during that period of time might resemble the current model of housing where there were real estate and property owners who owned lines of property and then used this property to let people in. this is seen in the advertisement column where an advertiser announces vacant rooms for rent.

Education

The kind of education that was offered during this period is the education that would enable youths or men members to work in the upcoming industries of the time that included the cotton industry that responsible for the manufacturing of textiles and clothing many Americans and also the wheat industry it the south that was responsible for the bread that the American people fed on. In order to keep these industries going, education in mechanical engineering was offered in institutes of education. This is the kind of education that was respectable that was largely offered in the United States and especially in the south at that time because of the hope of prosperity⁶.

Although the education system is shown in the papers, it was not duly defined as the current form of education and therefore was less stressed on like the current education system that every child had to go to school. It appeared as if the education system of the moment permitted freedom of choice for those who wanted to take education and likewise for those who opted not to take it.

Medicare

During that period of time, the medical system of all Americans was not defined. There were few doctors for those who could afford the cost. There seemed not to be present the medical insurance cover for the people working in the locomotion and other accident-prone industries. This example is attested to when a man is injured in the locomotive industry and then as reported in the papers that an amputation would be necessary but no report was made concerning the cover on the accident.

Also from the reports when a family was poisoned by a slave, the same doctor (Dr. Conway) who had treated the son of police –Robert, was also called to attend this family⁷. This shows that medication at that time was not widely practiced and therefore the number of medical doctors present was very limited. Take this example where one doctor is called to attend two different cases at different places and this is reported in the press as an implication that he might have been the only doctor in the south.

Another case to note here is that there were no organized hospitals because, after the incidences in the newspaper, it is the doctor who gets a call to attend to the patients at their own homes. This means that the medical system of the period was mobile, with the doctor on the move, unlike the current medical system where the injured or the sick are admitted to the hospital for medical examination by a group of doctors.

Entertainment

During that period of the mid 19^th century, there were little or the same kind of activities for the entertainment of the people. As seen from the paper, an attendance at magical shows was highly considered a big entertainment event that would pull a crowd of the time⁸. This is something that the people treasured and never wanted to miss such kind of shows unless they were compelled not to attend by bad weather.

For the younger generation, exhibitions that involved shows of motion pictures fascinated youthful crowds that they will find enough money to attend these shows. These are the shows that excited the young generation out of their minds, unlike the current young generation that is excited about the music, movies, and parties.

There was also the entertainment that concerned theatre performances whereby a play was to be staged for five consecutive days and an organization of ticket sales resembles the present mode whereby tickets are advertised

Slavery

These were the times that slavery in America was very legal that a master was allowed to buy and own a slave. So slaves were just objects to be used by their masters, that is, they had no rights. Buying and selling of slaves⁹ was legal and was like an auction that was organized for the sale of the most energetic and performing slaves. At around this same period there came up the abolitionist groups that sought to put an end to the social all forms of unjust that was put applied to slaves. The south was very repellant to this opinion and justified itself by claiming that these abolitionists were unmanly and unjust. Due to these differences between these two regions, there was tension on the sides over the issue that later led to the known civil war.

Thoughts on urban life in the South before the Civil War

Because the south was highly populated by the slaves, there was less organization of urban life as the major activities of the south were agriculturally based and vast pieces of land were dedicated to these activities. It had large lands for plantation farming and the only centers that were considered urban were the market centers. Therefore there was little organization on urban life in the south before the civil war.

As a result, there was a notable difference in the organization of urban life in the north and the south.

Resources

The daily Dispatch, (1852-1865), ProQuest Civil War Era Endnotes.

City council, (1855), Local Matters.
City council, (1855), Local Matters.
Grocery and Feed store (1855), Special New Notices.
Spirit of the Press, (1855), the Enquire.
Local matters, (1855), Poisoning a Family
Mechanic Institute,(1855), Local matters
City council, (1855), Local Matters.
Raymond, Malone (1855), Amusements: Soiree Magiquees.
Burns, Anthony (1855), A Spirit of the Press.

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